How is the audit tool scored?

What does my score on the AUDIT mean?

The alcohol audit is a tool that has been developed by the World Health Organisation as a simple way to pick up the early signs of hazardous and harmful drinking and to identify mild dependence.

This test can’t find out about your medical problems and it cannot say for certain if alcohol use is harming your health. What it can do is say how likely you are to be a problem drinker. There are four categories and you will find your score in one of them. Don’t forget, you may not be drinking now, but that doesn’t mean that there will not be risks if you do start to drink. The effects of alcohol when you start drinking again are likely to be greater than before.

The minimum that you can score is 0 and the maximum is 40.

You have scored between 0-7 . This means that you are likely to be a Low risk drinker.

Your feedback

Your drinking looks like it is low risk.

If you are pregnant or have medical problems you need to seek medical advice.

You have scored between 8-15. This means that you are likely to be an ‘Increasing risk’ or ‘hazardous’ drinker.

Your feedback

You are at increased risk of harming your health as a result of drinking.

This is similar to the idea of risky behaviour. For example, smoking 20 cigarettes a day may not be accompanied by any present or actual harm, but we know that it is ‘hazardous’.

If you are regularly drinking at a level that places you at increasing risk and you might already have experienced problems like feeling tired or depressed, gaining extra weight, memory loss while drinking, sleeping poorly and sexual difficulties.

If you are in this category, you are drinking hazardously, however you may not be seeking treatment for an alcohol problem, even though you may realise that your drinking is putting you at risk.

You therefore have a very important decision to make and should consider cutting down your drinking.